Al-Azhar Urges Action to Address Climate Change

Part of the Al-Azhar University’s conference on climate change (Al-Azhar)
Part of the Al-Azhar University’s conference on climate change (Al-Azhar)
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Al-Azhar Urges Action to Address Climate Change

Part of the Al-Azhar University’s conference on climate change (Al-Azhar)
Part of the Al-Azhar University’s conference on climate change (Al-Azhar)

Al-Azhar has ordered its institution to draft a curriculum to raise awareness of the dangers of climate change and coordinate efforts to address environmental and climate crises.

This comes as part of Egyptian institutions’ preparations to host the COP27 United Nations Climate Change Conference in 2022 in the Red Sea resort of Sharm El-Sheikh.

“Preserving the environment and limiting the climate change crisis is a crucial matter and underestimating its negative impacts exacerbates poverty rates,” it noted.

Al-Azhar University’s third scientific conference for environment and sustainable development kicked off on Saturday in Cairo, under the auspices of President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi.

The three-day event is attended by Al-Azhar Grand Imam Sheikh Ahmed al-Tayeb, Awqaf Minister Mohamed Mokhtar Gomaa and Egypt’s Grand Mufti Dr. Shawki Allam, as well as prominent religious figures.

Among various topics, the conference will discuss the impact of pollution on climate and the negative effect of climate change on health, industry, water and agriculture, as well as the role of greenhouse gas emissions in upping pollution rates and global warming.

Tayeb underlined the importance of coordinating efforts between religious leadersو scholars and political leaders to raise awareness about environmental and climate crises.

Tayeb said that Sisi’s sponsorship of the event asserts Egypt’s interest and keenness to claim responsibility and play its role in facing the major challenges facing humanity.

Climate change is causing rise in temperatures, the outbreak of fires in forests, snowfall in the seas and oceans and the extinction of many animal and plant species, he stressed.

These have prompted officials in the east and the west to warn from these dangers, hold international conferences to address the causes of this catastrophe and work hard to prevent it and criminalize its perpetrators.

President of Al-Azhar University Mohamed al-Mahrasawi said climate change is an “old, modern and renewed issue,” considering it one of the most complex matters.

“Poor peoples are still paying a heavy bill as a price for the welfare of the major industrialized countries, their exploitation of the environment and their pollution and global warming.”

He called for forming a specialized scientific committee to prepare a simple educational curriculum on the dangers of climate and environmental changes and means to address them and reduce their effects.



Israel Drafts Plan to Annex West Bank Settlements

An Israeli settlement in the West Bank. (Reuters)
An Israeli settlement in the West Bank. (Reuters)
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Israel Drafts Plan to Annex West Bank Settlements

An Israeli settlement in the West Bank. (Reuters)
An Israeli settlement in the West Bank. (Reuters)

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has backed calls from his ministers to impose Israeli sovereignty over the West Bank next year after US President Donald Trump takes office.

In recent private talks, Netanyahu said the issue of sovereignty in the West Bank should return to the agenda once Trump is in the White House, according to public broadcaster Kan.

This aligns Netanyahu with coalition members already pushing for such a move next year.

Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, head of the National Religious Party - Zionism Party and holds a position within Israel’s Defense Ministry where he oversees the administration of the occupied West Bank and its settlements, said Monday that a Trump win would create a “key opportunity” for Israel to impose sovereignty.

“We were close to applying sovereignty to settlements in Judea and Samaria during Trump’s last term, and now it’s time to make it happen,” he said.

“2025: the year of sovereignty in Judea and Samaria,” Smotrich wrote on X, using the biblical name by which Israel refers to the occupied West Bank.

Far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir also welcomed Donald Trump’s victory, saying, “This is the time for sovereignty.”

Trump’s win has encouraged Israeli right-wing leaders to push for annexing and expanding West Bank settlements.

The plan to extend sovereignty over the Jordan Valley and West Bank settlements dates back to 2020, when Netanyahu sought Trump’s approval to move forward.

Kan reported that annexation plans are ready to be implemented.

In 2020, as part of Trump’s “Deal of the Century,” Deputy Prime Minister Yariv Levin’s team, working with US officials, prepared maps, regulations, and a draft government resolution, Kan said.

The plan includes access roads and potential expansion zones for each settlement.

The West Bank is home to around 144 official settlements and over 100 unofficial outposts, covering approximately 42% of the territory, including their jurisdictions. These areas house about 600,000 Israeli settlers.